By Our Staff Reporter
Dehradun, 8 Jan: To resolve the connectivity challenges and to support seamless movement of population residing in rural areas, ICICI Foundation proposes to construct 15 pukka bridges for 66 villages across 7 districts in the Himalayan region. These bridges would be of great help for the villagers and would alleviate the challenges faced by the villages for their regular commutes. To implement this initiative, ICICI Foundation is collaborating with HESCO, a well-known institution which has been working with the communities in the Himalayan belt and has undertaken similar work in the past.
An MoU was executed here, today, between ICICI Foundation and HESCO. The MoU was signed by Anuj Agarwal, COO, ICICI Foundation for Inclusive Growth, and Dr Anil Joshi, Founder & Secretary, HESCO.
The construction of these structures would bridge the gap for these villagers towards progress and also ensuring safety of villagers.
Anuj Agarwal said, “ICICI Foundation works with the communities and strives to fill the need gaps in a sustainable way. Villagers located in the hills often face the problem of having to travel long distances to reach nearby areas due to a stream or river flowing. An intervention of constructing a bridge to overcome this issue can have a huge impact on education of children and livelihood of locals. ICICI Foundation is keen to work on this for the benefit of the local population which will also lead to inclusive growth. Today’s MoU for 15 bridges is another step towards creating sustainable solutions.”
Dr Anil Joshi added, “Connectivity of the villages in the Himalayan is a big challenge for the villagers, especially for women and children. Due to absence of any road or bridge over streams and rivulets, people have to commute via very long distances through mountains and valleys across two villages which also leads to shortage of resources, lack of education for children as they cannot visit the schools on the other side. To address the challenge, ICICI Foundation and HESCO shall be constructing 15 Bridges and an MoU has been signed for the same today.”
